City council votes to raze
two dilapidated buildingsPolk County Enterprise, August 2007 BY VALERIE REDDELL
Editor

LIVINGSTON — Two wooden frame buildings in the 100 block of Starghill will be demolished in 30 days due to numerous violations of city codes, city council members decided unanimously Tuesday.
City attorney Gaffney Phillips told the council that notices have been sent to the owner of record based on research of title records, but ownership of the two properties is unclear since previous owners have died and heirs are not identified.
One Livingston resident who bears a similar name to the owner of record appeared at Tuesday’s meeting to state on the record that she has no claim on the property.
Records show a Daisy Harrison named on a deed filed in 1949 was not the same Daisy Veronica Harrison who appeared at Tuesday’s meeting since she was born in 1961.
The other Starghill Street property lists owners as W. B. Mathews and Mary Mathews as owners, but both of them are deceased, records show.
Both properties are the subject of property tax lawsuits that will be heard next month.
City Engineer Jerry Marsh said the property on Starghill and Beatty is the first property he has ever tried to inspect that he couldn’t see.
Both structures are virtually obscured from street view by vegetation.
Community Development Coordinator Ben Buchanan said City Fire Marshal Mark Taylor is working to have two trailers currently sitting on the property removed.
The trailers are occupied by a possible heir to the property, but he has not claimed an ownership interest in the proceedings currently under way.